Stateless ex-Georgian leader to settle in Netherlands

Saakashvili's stay in the Netherlands was approved by migration authority, his lawyer tells local media

By Abdullah Asiran

THE HAGUE (AA) - Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who has been stateless since July 2017, will settle in the Netherlands, according to local media.

Saakashvili’s lawyer Oscar Hammerstein told local media that his client’s stay in the Netherlands has been arranged and approved by the Immigration and Naturalization Department.

He was given permission to stay in the Netherlands on basis of family reunion as Saakashvili is married to a Dutch woman, according to the report.

On Monday, Saakashvili was detained from a restaurant in Kiev and deported to Poland, according to Ukrainian State Border Guard Service's Spokesman Oleg Slobodyan.

On Wednesday, he travelled to Amsterdam along with his lawyer to stay in the country.

After serving as president of Georgia for 10 years, Saakashvili was appointed as the governor of Ukraine's southern Odessa region by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in 2015 but he resigned the following year.

He then became an outspoken critic of the Ukrainian president and accused him of corruption.

Saakashvili was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship while in the U.S. in mid-2017, rendering him stateless.

However, in September he crossed into Ukraine from Poland with the help of his supporters.

His Georgian citizenship had already been revoked after getting a Ukrainian passport in 2015.

In 2014, former Georgian Prime Minister Vano Merabishvili was also sentenced to three years for abusing his powers.